The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has said it will welcome applications from qualified business centres in Katsina State willing to establish Computer Based Test (CBT) centres that could be used for the conduct of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME).
State Coordinator Isyaku Mohammed Kankia, in an interview, said the present number of seven CBT centres is inadequate and cannot cater for the over 25,000 applicants expected to write the exams each year.
He said: “The seven CBT centres presently located in Daura (2); Funtua, Malumfashi and Kusada (one each) and Dutsin-Ma (2) – are inadequate, so we invite more qualified applicants for CBT centres to come forward.”
Kankia also admonished applicants for the UTME exams to embrace the various innovations introduced by the body, especially during registration and processing of applications, to ensure a hitch-free admission.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, on Thursday in Katsina said it will welcome application from qualified business centers willing to establish Computer Based Test centers, CBT, that could be deployed to use in the conduct of unified tertiary matriculation examinations, UTME
The state coordinator of JAMB, Isyaku Mohammed Kankia told the Nation in an exclusive interview in his office, that the present number of CBT center which he put about 7, is grossly inadequate and cannot take over 25,000 applicants expected to write the UTME exams from the state each year
He said ‘’the 7 CBT centers presently located as follows: Daura 2,Funtua,Malumfashi and Kusada one each, and Dutsin-Ma 2 ,are grossly inadequate so we invite more qualified applicants for CBT centers to come forward’’
The JAMB boss further admonished applicants for the UTME exams to embrace the various innovations introduced by the management of the board, especially during registration and processing of applications for admission, to ensure a hitch free admission exercise
He said ’’intending applicants must during registration, ensure the posses valid email address, functional telephone lines which they can even source from close relatives in case they don’t have. There is no registration by proxy, because of data capturing’’
‘’Awaiting results must quickly come forward to upload their results as soon as they were released by the various examination bodies’’
Reviewing the conducts of the last UTME exercise, especially with the flood gate of complaints particularly from two CBT centers in the state capital, the cordinator adduced some reasons that usually occasioned complaints of missing center numbers and candidates not finding their examination centers to include; mistakes made at the registration points by candidates, poor finger print capturing, and poor profile creation by candidates and re-selling of pin by candidates
Kankia further admitted that some of the challenges facing JAMB in Katsina state include awareness and adequate knowledge of the various innovations and technology introduced by the examination body
He said ’’we are presently reaching out to relevant stakeholders to create better awareness level on our activities through visits to media houses, schools, traditional rulers and allied agencies. This is because when candidates are well informed about the innovations taking place in JAMB the better for a seamless service delivery’’
He admonished candidates to discourage second hand information and that when in doubt about the activities of the board ,they should approach the office for clarification
THE National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) has said that it cannot remit money to the Federation Account like the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) because of low enrolment of candidates for its examination.
Its Registrar/Chief Executive, Prof. Ifeoma Isiugo-Abanihe, who spoke at the weekend in Bénin City, Edo State, while briefing reporters on the releases of the May/June 2018 NBC/NTC examinations, said the fund it generated was not enough to run its affairs.
Abanihe, who was silent on how much the body remitted to the Federation Account since she came on board, said huge sums of money was used to execute the conduct of examinations.
The NABTEB boss added that certificates issued by the examination body are now accepted for admission into School of Nursing Programmes across the country.
Abanihe stated that 32,697 candidates out of 54,752 that sat for the examination scored five credits and above, including English Language and Mathematics (representing 59.72 per cent).
She said 45,721 candidates scored five credits and above with or without English Language and Mathematics, representing 83.51 per cent of the candidates that sat for the same examinations.
She said she was determined to remove other obstacles to the acceptance of the certificates by institutions.
Prof. Abanihe identified Bayelsa, Borno and Edo as states where the body failed to record examination malpractices in the just-concluded May/June 2018 NBC/NTC examinations.
She said the body recorded 842 cases of malpractices while the culprits were dealt with accordingly.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board ( JAMB ), on Wednesday, cautioned private cyber cafe operators against extortion of prospective candidates who want to upload their results on the board’s website.
The Head of Media of the board, Dr Fabian Benjamin, gave the caution in an interview with newsmen in Abuja.
Benjamin said that the caution became necessary following several complaints made to the board by the victims, on fraudulent activities by some private café operators.
He said the candidates complained of high amount of money they were being charged by such operators to upload their WAEC results on JAMB website.
“Not only do they charge them high, they also convince candidates who had already uploaded their results on the site to do same again.
“Candidates who have had their results uploaded at the point of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) registration need not do that again, except for those who registered with awaiting results.
“Those are the ones allowed to upload now on our website.
“This upload should not cost more than N100.
“No cyber café should charge more than this amount, however, if candidates can locate any of our Computer Based Test (CBT) Centres, it is free to make the upload there,” Benjamin said.
Our correspondent who visited some of the cyber cafés in Bwari reports that while some charge a negotiable N500, few charge up to N1, 000 for the result upload.
The exercise follows the recent release of 2018 WAEC results and the announcement by JAMB that“leaders of institutions agreed that the First Choice Admission would be conducted from July 2 to Oct. 16’’.
According to the board, the Second Choice Admission is to commence from Oct.17 to Dec.17.
THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has remitted another N7.8 billion to the Federal Government.
Its Head, Media and Information, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, made this known yesterday in Lagos, said the board decided to remit the amount as surplus to the Federal Government as was done in 2017.
Benjamin said the amount was the surplus generated from the conduct of the board’s 2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
He said: “However, government, in its magnanimity, graciously directed that we remit about N5.6 billion and use the balance for restructuring of the board’s headquarters to meet up with its international status.
“We, therefore, want to appreciate the governing board of JAMB led by Dr. Emmanuel Ndukwe for the tremendous support in ensuring that the current administration’s vision of transparency and accountability as fully embraced by JAMB is sustained.
“The Ndukwe-led board had, within its short period of inauguration, contributed immensely in some ground-breaking innovations.
“One of such innovations is the quick remittance of the 2018 surplus. Whatever candidates pay for JAMB’s examination is a trust and must be accounted for.
“The board, though not a revenue generating agency, will continue to be judicious with resources at its disposal,” he said.
Benjamin said cumulatively and technically, the board had remitted a total of N15.6 billion in less than two years.
“The board is thinking of how to ensure that candidates benefitted from the surplus.”
Benjamin added: “We are currently looking at a number of ways to enhance the conduct of the examination where candidates will benefit by way of conducive environment in writing the examination.
“We are also looking at putting more mechanism in place that will ensure absolute equity and fairness in the selection of candidates through enhanced technology as currently being done by the Central Admission Process Selection (CAPS).”
Benjamin said the board was set to acquire cutting edge technology to give candidates the best registration procedure, examination and a more improved selection process.
He said the development was similar to the one that was presently being developed by the CAPS initiative.
Benjamin hailed the efforts of the board’s workers, as well as other key stakeholders, for their doggedness, commitment and support in ensuring that integrity of the board and its examination was sustained.
Public examinations in the country are being plagued by malpractices of various hues. In this report, Shehu Olayinka goes behind the headlines to expose the tactics of the fraudsters
ON April 23, 2018, a certain Mrs Bamidele Olateju, on her Facebook page wrote: “Let’s shutdown these websites”. The websites she was referring to were those which had allegedly posted on their sites questions and answers to the then ongoing West Africa Examinations Council School Certificate Exams (WASCE).
The websites include: Naijaclass.com, Examcrown.com, Exponet.com, examsort.com, Gurus.com, examloaded.com. However, further scouring of other websites by our reporter revealed that these were not the only culpable ones. Others include examwide.com, easyrunz.com, waecexpo.com, examclass.net, realbase.net, guruswapaz.com, codedclass.com, Jambito.com.
The mode of operation is not restricted to the social media platform alone. They use mobile phone text message, too.
In carrying out their activities, they use both payments through banks or exchange of recharge cards. For instance, to get ‘expo’ on nine subjects, interested students are told what to do. Those who want to receive the ‘expo’ by SMS are charged N6500, whilst Whatsapp is N5000 and to get a password link to log into the website open-ended is N3500, depending on the websites.
Patrons of Examcrown are charged N800 per subject for SMS/Direct. Payments are made through purchase of recharge cards. English Language, Mathematics, Further Maths go for N1000, while practicals are N600per subject.
Grid screenshots charges charged to patrons
In fact, Examcrown has mastered the techniques of marketing so as to get the attention of interested students. This is done through testimonies of success stories from successful candidates. These are principally done to sway students to enrol.
On all these websites mobile numbers are listed with instructions on how to contact them.
On a first visit to Examcrown website, visitors are met with a homepage notifying them of what to expect on the website: JAMB EXPO RUNZ, WAEC EXPO RUNZ, NECO EXPO RUNS, WAEC GCE RUNZ. This is followed by a phone number +2347032581573, for calls and messages.
Using the social media
Their preferred social media platform is Whatsapp. After perusing through some websites, it was discovered that Examcrown and Naijaclass (9jaclass) have the highest volume of traffic and activities than the others.
On April 24, when Examcrown was contacted on Whatsapp by the reporter for a chat, a terse response of “no time to talk, what do you want?” was all he got.
Preferred social media platform is Whatsapp
The reporter responded that he needed answers for NECO 2018 exam. He immediately got a response detailing prices, processes and how to apply. The reporter didn’t respond. On May13, perhaps after noticing the silence from the reporter’s end during the WAEC exam and sensing the reporter’s distrust, a boastful message was sent to him stating that the operators of the ring have stronger connections with NECO than WAEC!
The Whatsapp message reads, “The NECO exam answers will come earlier than WAEC. We have more people in NECO than WAEC and answers will be sent three to four hours before the start of NECO while WAEC is between one or two hours late on exam days, that won’t be repeated in NECO, we will be fast in sending our answers.”
It continued, “Our NECO runz (answers) is going to be the best. We have made contacts with our NECO officials for the question papers to be delivered on time, so as to make sure everything works perfectly.”
On May 25, Exacrown sent the specimens for Biology, Agric, Chemistry, Physics, and Animal husbandry Practicals.
True to their word, Theory and Objective questions for Government subject exam of May 31, was sent. Examcrown, sent the front page cover, with page 12 and 14 to the undercover reporter at 1:00pm, notifying him of having gotten the question and promising to send answers shortly. The paper was billed to start at 2:30pm – 4:40pm, according to the NECO timetable.
Grid Screenshots of leaked NECO questions
The front page cover of the Physics Practical to be held on June 5 at 10:00am was sent at 1:00am, which is nine hours before the examination began!
In the same vein, the front page of NECO Economics, which was meant to start at 2:30pm and end at 5:30pm was sent to the undercover reporter at 1:34am, a clear 14 hours before the examination!!
Chemistry Practical which was to be held on June 6 by 10:00am and end at 6:33am, was made available three hours 27 minutes before the start of the exam. This was followed by page 7, 6:35am, page 2 at 6:37am, page 3 at 6:43am and page 6 by 6:41am after sending the front cover, also with solved question answers snapped and sent at 8:24am.
Grid Screenshots of leaked NECO questions
Also another website operator observed and engaged was 9jaclass, which makes use of a Whatsapp business account to communicate with interested students.
Investigation of Naijaclass using Google map, discovered that it’s based around Gwarinpa General Hospital, Abuja and using a pseudo name of Avon Nicole to perpetrate the crime.
Its handlers location according to his leaked location is around the vicinity of Gwarinpa General Hospital, Abuja. It is a 13 min (9.7 km) drive via ShehuYar’adua Way to NECO Abuja office, Opposite National Gallery of Arts, Usman Street, District, Utako, Abuja, FCT, Mabushi, Abuja.
Leaked Map of Naijaclass handler location in Abuja. (google)
On June 6, 9jaclass was notified of the reporter’s intention of wanting answers to the English question paper. A one thousand naira recharge card was sent on that date for English Language Essay, Objectives and Test of Orals.
On June 6, Naijaclass at 6:06am replied through a text message to the reporter of the successful completion of his registration, after which on June 7, the answers to the questions were sent in a sequential order.
Further findings revealed that the Sim cards used by the perpetrators are always newly registered and have none of their data online, thereby making it hard for them to be traced.
Grid screenshots from their websites
The NYSC connection
Further findings revealed that some perpetrators have perfected means of connecting with the coordinators of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in local government areas. They use the corps members to ease the process of cheating in some of the schools.
According to a corps member who served in Kogi State in 2016, “The heads of schools (private and public) either Headmasters or Headmistress request for candidates, especially science teachers from NYSC. It should be noted that not all of those who request for these teachers use the corps members to perpetrate malpractices, but few are culpable,” he said.
He added, “Though sending of specialised teachers to some schools isn’t illegal, but where I will blame NYSC is the non-supervisory roles of the Service. Truth be told, we were categorically told before leaving camp not to engage in any form of malpractice, but we were not told on how to go about it if we were accosted or who to report to if the situation arose. What they do is to have NYSC members who are good, majorly in science subjects to help candidates out by either writing for them or writing on the board. All these, happening in connivance with the examination invigilators.”
The former corps member continued, “In my school, the proprietor was even writing for some students. You get people coming from different parts of the country to register here, because it is believed that it is a free-cheating area, far and secluded from the eyes of the examination body.
“Who would want to go and invigilate in rural areas without good access roads and security? For registration in these kinds of areas, you pay as high as N40,000. Some schools even go higher and people pay it because it is ‘guaranteed success’.”
Asked how much the school paid NYSC members who engaged in this act, our source said it depends on the school.
“The kind of pay you get depends on your school. Some pay as higher as N50,000 for the whole subjects, whilst some get below that depending on the number of people who register at the school.”
Another ex-corps member who served in one of the northern states also told our reporter of how schools use corps members to perpetrate malpractice.
“During my service year, I was approached to help with Chemistry and Physics. That’s what goes on in these schools, especially those far from the capital. It happens everywhere across the country, because I had friends informing me of the same thing happening in their places of primary assignments.”
Appearance and non-appearance
Another form of examination malpractice which is commonly used is known as “appearance and non-appearance” method.
This method is mostly used by those who are not students of a particular school or those who are in need of a clean sweep of subjects.
An ex-perpetrator of “non-appearance” examination, who sat in three external papers for candidates, said the process is one of the best ways of examination malpractice. The culprit, whose identity is shielded because of fear of victimisation from his former colleagues and employers said, “In Zaria (Kaduna State) where I am based, there is “appearance and non-appearance” arrangements. Each has its own method of payment. In the “appearance” method the candidate sits for the examination, but he does not in case of “non-appearance”. It works as the name connotes. Though, the “non-appearance” comes with a higher charge” he said.
“It goes for as high as N50,000 upwards for non-appearance, while appearance is not up to that amount. There is nothing serious in it, I sat three times for different candidates and it was successful,” he boasted.
“We usually do it in the office of the examination officer, with the full knowledge and approval of the principal in public schools and heads or directors in private schools. This is what is obtain able in almost all schools in Zaria; it is not something that’s hidden.
“During my examination year in 2006, in my hall, I saw someone with text-book who was allowed to write without being questioned, but a text-book was seized from another candidate in the same hall because he had not settled them,” he concluded.
While Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, (JAMB) has in recent years been dealing with cases of examination malpractice, the introduction of Computer Based Test (CBT), has reduced drastically cases of examination malpractice in its exams held across the country.
Examcrown, Naijaclass and other perpetrators boast of also having answers for JAMB questions, though JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede in an interview with reporters in Benin City on May 29, 2018, admitted to some attempts by alleged hackers in trying to breach its systems, but refuted claims that the board’s security system was breached and examination leaked.
He said the examination body has put proactive measures in place to arrest anybody attempting to hack into its system.
“I have not found any case of a breakthrough. No matter how clever they think they are, we are ahead of them. One of the rea sons why I led a delegation here myself is to see whether there is any evidence of breakthrough. You can ask any of the security agencies handling the matter, they will tell you.
“We have not been able to find one case of success. What we are treating are attempts. And because we are proactive, that is why we are picking their attempts when people try to break into our BVN. They did not get any questions because our questions were not there. They were able to break into a decoy that we created and they were not able to do anything.”
Prof. Oloyede added: “That is why we keep on promising them that if you can get us one question of ours that is genuine, we will pay you a lot. So, because we believe that we must be proactive that is why we are dealing with any attempt and once an attempt is made, we do not leave it as an attempt, we go after them and when we go after them, we arrest them.”
NECO speaks, WAEC keeps mum
While NECO Head of Information and Public Relations, Alhaji Azeez Sani, admitted to the malaise in a telephone interview with this reporter, all effort to get management of WAEC’s reaction to the story proved abortive.
The reporter visited WAEC office in Yaba on June 25, 2018 to get an official reaction from it, but Demianus Ojijeogu, Head, Public Affairs, WAEC Nigeria, was said not to be around by a lady staff of the examination body.
However, when Ojijeogu was reached through his mobile number the next day, the reporter explained his mission to him. He was asked to send his questions to Ojijeogu’s official email. This was promptly done. But nine days after, he had still not replied to the reporter’s questions (up till the point of this publication).
On his part, the NECO PRO, Azeez said “If you go through the questions published online, you will notice it’s fake. What they normally do is to collate question papers that had been used before and post it on the internet for unsuspecting and gullible students who want easy way to success. We have been able to discover that. The way we dispatch our question papers it will be pretty difficult for anyone to say he or she has it before the commencement of the examination.”
He added that three years ago, some fraudsters hawking fake question papers were arrested by the police, insisting that most of the questions posted online were fake.
Azeez added, “It’s pertinent to note that the rate at which malpractice is being condoned in conducted examinations in Nigeria is alarming, shameful, embarrassing and an act that will surely meet us as nemesis in the future. Presently, companies are complaining of half-baked graduates. Surely they are all candidates and products of exam malpractices conducted in the past.”
While the police on June 1 paraded four arrested suspects for operating illegal websites and defrauding candidates sitting for the WAEC exams, nothing has been heard of the case while other perpetrators still continue with their nefarious business.
CSP Jimoh Moshood, the spokesman of the Police Headquarters, while parading the suspects in Abuja, said the suspects received N70,000; N90,000; N40,000 and N120,000 from people.
The suspects included; Chijoke Modestus, Samuel Onwurah, Patrick Nwodo and Okon Joseph who operated separate syndicates. They were arrested at different locations across the country.
Mooshod had said, “The suspects were arrested by police operatives following a petition from WAEC authorities. They had setup websites soliciting candidates sitting for the examination to pay money into their bank accounts, in exchange for the provision of worked solutions/answers to questions. They usually charged N400, for answers to subjects being taken on any particular day as the examination was in progress.”
He added that “They lured their victims by promising to send worked solutions and answers via WhatsApp at about 20 or 30 minutes after the commencement of each paper in the process they have fraudulently and dubiously dispossessed their unsuspecting victims of their hard-earned money.”
The National Industrial Court on Monday struck out a suit filed against the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), for failure of the claimant to prove that his dismissal was unlawful.
The claimant, Ignatius Stephen approached the court to declare his dismissal unlawful and sought for reinstatement, payment of his salaries and entitlements.
Stephen told the court that JAMB did not have a governing board at the time of his dismissal, and therefore, the terms and conditions of service as stated in his employment letter was breached.
Delivering judgment, Justice Rakiya Haastrup, said that the inability of the claimant to tender his letter of employment as material evidence of fact to determine whether or not his dismissal was unlawful had truncated his case.
Haastrup said that the inability of the claimant to present the employment letter made it difficult for the court to determine his employer and who could appoint and dismiss him.
The claimant’s counsel, Mumini Hanafi in his argument said that the claimant’s employment was governed by his letter of employment and the Public Service Rules (PSR), 2009.
He said that by virtue of letter of employment and the PSR, the power to dismiss his client from service was vested on the board of the defendant.
Hanafi said the claimant was dismissed on the directive of the minister of education, which made the dismissal unlawful.
Adedoyin Adejunmobi, the defense counsel, in his submission said that the claimant was dismissed over his engagement in unauthorised admission matters in 2016.
He insisted that due process was followed before the claimant was dismissed.
Adejunmobi said the claimant was issued a query, faced a disciplinary panel which indicted him and was subsequently dismissed from the service of the board.
He said that the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu by powers vested on him by the JAMB Act, could perform certain functions of the board as was done in this case.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that similar suits filed against JAMB by dismissed workers were struck out by the same court over their failure to either tender their conditions of service or employment letters.
Despite complaints of poor access to tertiary education in Nigeria, the Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof Is-shaq Oloyede, has said 44.7 per cent of admission spaces were not taken up by candidates in the last admission exercise.
Speaking at the 2018 policy meeting for tertiary institutions in Nigeria held at the brand new Bola Babalakin Hall, Gbangan, Osun State Tuesday, Oloyede said of the total 1,025,487 spaces available in universities,, polytechnics, colleges of education and Innovations Enterprise Institutions both private and public, across Nigeria, 566,641 were filled while 457,846 were unused.
The college’s of education had the highest number of unused slots – 290,097 of 364,722. Universities had 119,878 unused spaces (of 538,269) while polytechnics had 39,404 (of 112,437) and IEIs, 8,467 (of 9,059).
To address this problem of unused spaces, Oloyede said JAMB will provide a virtual market space for institutions to shop for students not admitted by their first choice institutions.
He urged the Institutions to keep to the admissions timetable to enable the seemless coordination of the process.
“If any institution does not do it’s admission on time, we will withdraw the names of the students and we will transfer them to the market place where others can pick them.
When are doing First Choice admission, do your own even if you are not ready to resume,” he said.
In his speech the Education Minister, Adamu Adamu, urged managers of the tertiary institutions to be transparent in carrying out their duties, noting that he had evidence of underhand dealings of some managers.
“Please let the qualities of transparency, honesty, sincerity, equity, loyalty, and commitment to nation building be our guiding principles. We should be dissuaded from doing any official business under the table. heads of tertiary institutions are encouraged to institutionalised the qualities enumerated above.
“A lot of revelations laced with observed lapses and documentary evidence have been brought to my attention. We have extensively consulted on the way forward and I therefore urge each institution to abide by the regulations,” he said.
“Some of you carry out your duties with full understanding and knowledge that some of your actions cannot stand the test of integrity, as some of the infractions you endorse and approve are irregular,” he warned.
He urged all stakeholders to ‘ensure compliance with all Policy Directives in the interest of the Nation’s educational development’ adding that violations of these guidelines would not be tolerated as appropriate sanctions would be meted against violators.’’
In his welcome address, the Pro Chancellor, University of Lagos Dr. Wale Babalakin, who gave out the newly constructed 4,000-seater facility to JAMB free of charge, said he provided the space for intellectual discourse.
“This project was motivated by the desire to provide an environment conducive to serious intellectual work. It is our fervent believe that Nigeria will only achieve its full potential when the aggregate of our intellectual capacity is developed and harnessed appropriately,” he said.
THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has fixed June 26 for the 2018 admission policy meeting to kick-start admission into institutions.
JAMB Head of Media and Information Dr. Fabian Benjamin made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Lagos.
He said: “The main reason for the meeting is to define all modalities for admission of qualified candidates into the nation’s tertiary institutions for the 2018/2019 academic session.
“The board has concluded arrangements for this year’s admission policy meeting with all stakeholders in the education sector.
“This kind of meeting is to give room for contributions as well as ensure fairness and equity in the conduct of the 2018/2019 admission process.
“We are expecting in attendance all heads of tertiary institutions across the country.
“We shall be convening this meeting, for the first time, in the Southwest, Osun precisely.
“All the Southwest governors have been invited coupled with other critical stakeholders.
“To ensure that there is no misrepresentation of facts or information, there will be a live coverage of the meeting on NTA from 11:30a.m. to 1:30p.m, so that Nigerians can follow the proceedings,” he said.
Benjamin said in addition, Nigerians would also be able to get first-hand information on how the admission would be conducted, especially the requirements needed.
He assured Nigerians that the board would continue to ensure it brought on board innovations and reforms that would give the candidates an edge over admission process challenges.
Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu has charged Nigerians to embrace education in order to eradicate kidnapping, ignorance and other vices from the country.
Ekweremadu gave the charge on Friday in Asaba while inaugurating the Delta State library complex completed and equipped by the Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa administration as part of its 3rd anniversary infrastructural project.
We reports that Ekweremadu had earlier performed the groundbreaking for the
N13-billion Delta State Central Secretariat Complex initiated by the Okowa administration and due for completion in June 2019.
He also commissioned the 23.4 kms Nsukwa-Ndemili Road in Aniocha South, 1.12-kms Owa Alidima Access Road in Ika North-East and 2.8-kms Bonsaac (Oduke) Road, Asaba in Oshimili South Local Government Area of the state.
According to Ekweremadu, the library project is the mother of all projects because knowledge is power.
“This is because with education, the challenges we have in the country like kidnapping, ignorance and other social vices can be pushed away by education.”
He applauded the governor for the various roads projects, saying that such projects open up communities, make movements easier and attract development to the state.
In his address, Okowa thanked Ekweremadu for honouring his invitation to inaugurate the three roads project, the library and the groundbreaking of the State Secretariat.
He said that his administration had approved about 208 roads projects with 96 roads completed within the three years of his administration.
According to him, the projects were aimed at opening up the communities and linking them to urban centres across the state.
He said that other completed roads projects and a market in Sapele would also be inaugurated next week.
Commenting on other achievements of his administration, Okowa said that no fewer than 3,069 youths and women had been trained and empowered by his administration through the various wealth creation programmes of the government.
He said that the library project was initiated by the previous administration in March 2007.
“I want to appeal to the Library Board to encourage the younger ones to embrace reading culture, particularly those in the primary and basic education, to build them from the basics.”
Okowa said that the State Secretariat project would be completed by June 2019 to accommodate all the state ministries currently in rented accommodation since the creation of the state 1991.
On his part, the state Commissioner for Higher Education, Mr Jude Sinebe, said that the library complex had equipped with e-library for research and for JAMB examination.
We also reports that various communities where the roads projects were commissioned rolled out the drums to appreciate the government.
